The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1887-06-15

to understand their responsibilities or tC
teach their children. They alternately
slap them or caress and indulge them
Just as their own humor happens to be
good or bad
The little girls are taught how TO sew
and embroider, how to walk gracefully
and recline in the most negligent man
ner upon the divans, how to play by ear
little ON lutte, and to sing their in
terminable love songs. Their songs are
like Barbara Allen" Lovely Young
Caroline of Edinboro' Town." "The
Brown Girl' or ''Gypsy Davie''-all long
and telling whole romance to plain
tive chant.
never learned to speak Turkish, but
got SO that could seize upon the mean
ing of these songs. The singer always
puts all the life and sentiment she can
into her music, and often sheds tears as
she sings, as do her listeners. l have
even seen one or two Of them faint away
at the most pathetic part. This Is very
common trait among Turkish women,
and have not yet been able to decide
whether 1t Is the result of a weak will or
extreme sensibility, but they faint on
every possible occasion.
The Turkish women love music pas
sionately, and nearly all of them can
play some instrument with taste and
feeling, though almost always by ear.
Their native music is always sad and
plaintive and often full of such a
piercing sorrow that II is no wonder 1t
brings tears. They love flowers, too,
and you rarely see one without flower
in her hand when 1t Is possible to get
them, and they are fond of birds and
raise great many themselves. Many of
the Turkish women show considerable
talent in drawing and painting, though
the poor things never have any chance to
learn. They simply "pick 1t up"
AS found the Turkish women-and
happened to have obtained by fortunate
circumstances a chance to know them in
their homes accorded tovery few foreign
women and to absolutely no foreign man
they are gentle, submissive, loving and
with many natural gifts in addition to
their beauty. If they were educated, they
would be the equals of any women in
Europe. 1t does not seem to me that they
are unhappy in their peculiar marriage
relations. They reminded me of a
lot of irresponsible young girls In a
boarding school, and the only jeal-
ousy such as might be felt of the
teachers pet" Instead of the poison
and vindictiye murder / supposed
always ready to be inflicted upon each
other, the worst they ever do is to pull
each others hair occasionally or box each
others ears.
don't think the Turkish women are
really lazy or indolent, but for many
reasons they appear so. The husband
considers his wife as an irresponsible be-
ing, prone to mischief land he is rarely
mistakenly, and all he expects or requires
of her is to look pretty, be cheerful and
pleasant when he is near, and 1t would
be mark of disrespect for her TO do
anything in the way of work while he
is present. So these women are early
taught to be gracefully idle. Girls reach
their majority at nine and are frequently
married a year later, though usually not
until fifteen. BY that time all the edu
being taught all the abstruse sciences, she
is taught all the caressing words and
gestures possible to imagine-how to
walk, sit, look and speak SO as to appear
the most seductive to the eyes of the
husband who gets her.
No Turkish wife of the better class Is
whatever, nor to make any of the house
hold linen, nor to make any garments
for herself nor any member of the house.
hold, nor to sew any buttons on, nor
above all to make her husbands shirts
therefore 1t can be seen at once that al
most every source of domestic disagree
ment Is done away WITH and the Turkish
husband never expects his wife to get
on her knees and hunt for his collar but
ton, nor seold her II the dinner Is badly
cooked; so that In many respects life
In harem Is not SO very bad after all,
and one-tenth of good husband Is bet
ter than the whole of bad one
But the women can decorate, en-
broider and sew pearls and turquoises
all over everything they want to, and
they do 1t as labor of love, with exquis-
lite care and delicacy of taste and finish
Their own garments are such an odd
incongruity - bare feet and legs, or
socks and slippers, pantaloons Of COM
mon gaudy chintz, a &tGl0dr or skirt of
which the breadths are not sewn up,
great wad of shawl tied about waist
guiltless Of corsets, a jacket covered with
gold and pearl embroidery, jewels, neck
laces of coral, pearl, diamonds, and other
precious jewels, mingled with strings of
common beads, earrings, rings and brace
lets four inches wide, the brilliant s0or-
00tch above their foreheads stuck full of
gay flowers and jewels, and over all the
fertdjee with its shapeless folds, and the
beauty-giying, refining and mysterious
veil or ydshnaGk, which makes of a Turkish
woman at once the most ravishing and
ridiculous creature In the world Beau
tiful in the face as an angel, ugly and